CoffeeShop "Sanibel Beach Dreams" Photoshop/PSE Editing Tutorial: Part 1!!!

I love the beach. We live pretty close to Galveston Island so our family visits often. I love the history of Galveston Island and many of the beaches are so beautiful.  We get a condo on the beaches on the west side of the island off-season where there are gorgeous beaches with no crowds or traffic noise. You can see some of my photos on this post.

Growing up we also spent many summers vacationing at a friend's condo at Sanibel Island, Florida.   Paul and I even went there for our honeymoon. We drove to New Orleans for the first night and had our first Pat O'Brien's Hurricane drink which wiped us completely out and we ended up burning our tongues on hot pizza.  Wow that is painful...

We then drove to Sanibel and spent the rest of the week relaxing on the beach and had a wonderful time. Especially since we stayed away from all drinks named after dangerous killer storms.

Once the boys got big enough we started driving to Sanibel Island every few years. Just a few summers ago both of my boys learned to swim in the same swimming pool my sisters and I played in when we were their age.

So I have really wonderful memories of the beach at Sanibel Island. When I started working on this new action I was completely at a loss figuring out a appropriate name. I asked my Facebook followers for name suggestions and they had so many wonderful ideas. Several readers said the edit reminded them of a Skagen painting. Another reader mentioned "Valencia Beach" which I really liked, but then suddenly I was struck with the idea of naming this gorgeous edit/action after my favorite beach.

So today I am very excited to share with you my newest Photoshop/PSE editing tutorial called "Sanibel Beach Dreams". I am going to work through the edit in the next few days.

If you want to have the full deluxe "Sanibel Beach Dreams" action you will find it in my CoffeeShop Action Download pack as a special gift.  You can download a set of actions for part of this tutorial here on my blog. "Beach Dreams Water and Sky" "Beach Dreams Rosy Sky"

This edit, even with the action, will require you to know how to paint on layer masks. I have a basic tutorial here.

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You can use this beautiful fantasy beach edit on any beach image.  In this example from Rachel Taylor Photography I even added a beautiful dramatic sky. When I get to that part of the edit tutorial I will also post this sky overlay for free download.

CoffeeShop "Sanibel Beach Dreams" Photoshop/PSE Editing Tutorial PART 1: Portrait  Retouching

Today I am going to do some retouching of the portrait before adding the gorgeous colors.  Tomorrow in Part 2 I will start adding the whimsical pastel colors to the image.

Here is the gorgeous original image by Jessica Edwards Photography.

1. Define: I love to use my "Define" action on beach portraits. It really adds nice definition to hair, beach sand, and water.  After running the action I put the "Define" layer in Overlay blending mode at 67% opacity.

2. Skin Smoothing: Make a duplicate layer of your image and go to Filter, Blur, Surface Blur.

Set the Radius and Threshold to taste. It is OK to overdo this step because you can adjust the opacity later.

I added a layer mask to the skin smooth layer and filled the mask with black. Then I used a semi-soft white brush and painted on her arms and legs. Note: To see the red tint to follow where you are painting, just click on the black layer mask and then type the \ key. Type it again to remove the red.

3. Skin Powder/Glow: To add a pretty glowing soft finish to the skin that mimics afternoon light, add a peachy Color Fill adjustment layer.  I used #f7cdb7.  Fill the layer mask with black.

I used a semi-soft white brush to paint this layer on her skin. If you are using Photoshop you can copy the layer mask from Skin Smooth to Skin Powder by clicking on it while holding Alt/Option and dragging and dropping it on the new layer.

Then I put the Skin Powder layer in Soft Light blending mode at 42%.

You won't see much of a difference on a small screen but I always like to do some retouching in case the image is blown up large.

Now you can read Part 2 of the "Sanibel Beach Dreams" editing tutorial! You can grab the full version deluxe "Sanibel Beach Dreams" action in my CoffeeShop Action Download pack.

In the next tutorials I will show you how I paint in the gorgeous turquoise sky and water, add a golden glow to sand, create a dreamy pinkish sky,  and add an optional beautiful sky overlay.


Do you want to download my favorite CoffeeShop PSE/Photoshop Actions and Lightroom Presets or Design Elements in one convenient zipped file AND help support this blog? Just click here for my action pack or here for a download of some of my most popular design elements, storyboards, and textures.

For complete info on installing all of my actions, click here.

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